What happened to Bookogs

Bookogs was a community-built database of books and the editions they were printed in — a Discogs for books, built the same way, by the people who collect them. It is no longer online, and neither are the other -ogs sites. If you are here because you typed its name into a search box, the short answer is that the database was kept and it is back: ctlgs is the revival, and the books catalog is the Bookogs database brought forward and still being worked on.

What happened to Bookogs?

It went offline a few years ago, along with the rest of that family — Filmogs, Posterogs, Gearogs and Comicogs. What people had contributed was not deleted; it was kept, and it is the foundation of the catalogs here.

Is the Bookogs data gone?

No. The books catalog on ctlgs holds around 21,000 book entries and more than 150,000 editions under them, with the publishers, imprints, authors, illustrators and other credits attached — about 340,000 credit entries in all. Covers came across too.

Some of it arrived in worse shape than it left. Author credits on editions had to be rebuilt and put back; original titles and languages had to be restored; the contents of anthologies were partly lost on the way and are still being put right. Where something is missing it is usually recoverable, and it gets fixed in public, in the forum.

Is my old collection still there?

Not automatically. Your collection and wantlist were tied to a Bookogs account, and ctlgs accounts are new, so nothing is linked to you until someone links it.

Ask on the forum and it gets done: say what your old username was, and both your contribution history and your collection and wantlist are attached to your new account.

Do I need a new account?

Yes. Sign in to ctlgs with a forum account at forum.ctlgs.org — the same sign-in works for both, so there is one account and not two. Old passwords do not carry over.

What about Filmogs, Posterogs, Gearogs and Comicogs?

They are in the same revival, at different stages.

• Posterogs is live here as the gigposters catalog: about 38,000 posters, with the bands, artists and venues they are tied to.
• Filmogs is live as the home video catalog, which is built around the discs and tapes rather than the films: about 50,000 films and 71,000 releases of them.
• Gearogs is imported and being finished — hi-fi and musical instruments, about 21,000 pieces of gear between them.
• Comicogs is imported but not open, and may stay that way. The Grand Comics Database already does this job well and has the contributors to keep doing it.

Is ctlgs a Discogs for books?

That is the idea, and it is the shortest way to describe it. Discogs catalogs records one pressing at a time; ctlgs catalogs books one edition at a time — this publisher, this printing, this ISBN, this cover — and then lets you record which copies of them you own. ctlgs is not connected to Discogs in any way; it is a separate site, built by the people who were on Bookogs.

Is ctlgs the same thing as Bookogs?

Same idea, same database, different shape. One site holds all the categories instead of one site each, and the part that is new is what you can record about your own copies: one record per copy, with its condition, where you keep it and what you paid. That is the point of the place — see tracking what you own.

Can I still contribute?

Yes, and that is most of what needs doing. Entries can be edited by anyone signed in, and the gaps left by the import are the most useful thing to work on. The books catalog is the place to start, and the forum is where the contribution guidelines are being argued out.